Avoiding sexist pronouns
Contemporary English has a problem with its pronouns.
Traditionally, the masculine pronoun may represent all possible
sexes, as in "The researcher must do all he can to control
variables".
This dominance of the masculine is now considered politically
and socially unacceptable, especially in academic prose.
There are several easy ways of avoiding it:
Write in the plural
Simply change the subject to the plural, as in:
"Researchers must do all they can to control variables."
End of problem? But there are many occasions when the plural
is not possible, as in:
"The translator of this text, whoever he may be, knew nothing
about pragmatics."
Use nouns instead of pronouns
The above is easily solved by simply avoiding the pronoun:
"The translator of this text knew nothing about pragmatics."
The same is true of our first example:
"The researcher must do everything possible to control
variables."
Note that English allows for more repetition of noun phrases
than do most Romance languages.
Use the "singular they"
Shakespeare had no trouble making a singular noun
("everyone") be represented by a plural pronoun ("their"):
"God send everyone their heart's desire."
Another example:
"Assess the performance of your fellow interpreter. If they have
been working into their B language..."
This grammatical structure is known as the "singular they". It
has a noble history, being legitimate in English at least since
the eighteenth century (do a search on Google). Do not be
afraid to use it.
Use double pronoun structures, if you really must
Double pronoun structures take many forms in contemporary
English: "he or she", "she or he", "s/he", "she" as the dominant,
"he" for the the first part of the paper and "she" for the second,
and so on.
All these structures are politically correct, ugly, cumbersome,
and time-consuming.
Here is an example (all the following is from Kevin Costello)
(note: a solvent is glue, usually of the kind used for working
with plastics):
"S olvent abuse is not a crime but if a police officer finds a
young person under 17 sniffing solvents, he or she should take
him or her to a secure place such as a police station, home or
hospital."
A partial improvement here would be to use the noun:
"Solvent abuse is not a crime but if a police officer finds a
young person under 17 sniffing solvents, the officer should
take the person to a secure place such as a police station,
home or hospital."
A better solution is to use the plural:
"Solvent abuse is not a crime but if police officers find young
people under 17 sniffing solvents, they should take them to a
secure place such as a police station, home or hospital."
A further solution is possible if, for example, this sentence is
part of a training guide for police officers:
"Solvent abuse is not a crime but if you find a young person
under 17 sniffing solvents, you should take them to a secure
place such as a police station, home or hospital."
Note that the use of the second person has the effect of
humanizing technical English, making it more readily
understandable. A few second persons might have the same
effect in academic English.
Tasks
Remove "he or she" in the following (all are authentic
examples):
1. ".the Deaf used home signs (idiosyncratic signs created
within the family), talked loudly while signing or had an
additional handicap, i.e. he or she was spastic or
schizophrenic"
2. ".undeniable superiority of the original and of its author as
opposed to the inferiority of translation and the
translator/potential betrayer who, for this same reason, has to
remain humble and virtually invisible in the work he or she
does." (Arrojo 1998: 33)
3. "Capital as "accumulated labor" in the form of material and in
an "incorporated" form (Bourdieu 1997: 49) is described as the
sum of the social agent's determinations, i.e. the qualities or
distinctive features he or she develops, incorporates and
represents." (Wolf)
4. "...the translator or interpreter, when he or she is translating
and interpreting, is in the same position as an advocate."
(Kingscott)
5. "Norms impinge in meaningful ways on the choices which
the translator makes during the translation process and thus
colour the preferences he or she has for certain translational
solutions and not others." (Hatim)
6. "Culture is something that the ICP (Intercultural
Communication Practitioner) creates, a story he or she tells
that highlights and explains the differences that cause
breakdowns." (Agar 1994: 236)
7. "SI is a special mode of interpreting used in contexts where
what really matters is the communicative intention of the
speaker i.e., what the speaker is saying and not how he or she
is actually saying it." (Diriker)
8. "A good teacher is an authority. He or she has more
knowledge, experience, and insight into a subject than the
student does." (Stunkel 1988)
9. "Learner autonomy does not arise spontaneously from within
the learner but develops out of the learner's dialogue with the
world to which he or she belongs." (Little)
10. " the choice of one kind of reception or another depends
not just on the text, nor solely on the translator or the words he
or she fancies, but more directly on." (Pym)